The Brokendown Alchemist
by Solare
Summary: When Ed goes to Winry in Rush Valley for maintenance, he finds something he hasn't bargained for.
1. The Mecca

Disclaimer: Don't own FMA, wish I did. Do own Alyssa, but that's all so far.

In Rush Valley the day had dawned beautifully. A young woman of 17 sat on a cliff high above the town. She had been watching the sun rise.

She stood and stretched, limbs sore from sitting so long. From far down below she heard the first train pull into the station and smiled. They were here.

She ran down the hill and thru town to the depot. She chuckled as she noticed the enormous crowd gathered around a 7-ft. tall suit of armor. She knew the armor wasn't what the crowd was admiring, though if they only knew…

"Ed"! She cried. "Hey, Ed, hey Al"!

"Get out of my way." A voice yelled at the crowd. "Hey Winry," was the reply.

A short, blond young man also 17, with copper eyes named Edward Elric strolled up to her. The suit of armor, also known as Alphonse Elric, Ed's younger brother, followed close behind.

"So Winry, has the old man given you the secret yet"? Edward Elric asked.

"Nope, but he lets me go up there to watch any time I want to now."

Winry led the way back to Garfiel's house. "How are you two"? She asked.

"As well as expected I suppose." Al replied.

"Still searching for a way to get back your bodies I see." Winry said. "So what needs fixing this time Ed"?

"My arm feels a little loose and my leg is kinda stiff." He replied.

By the time they had caught up on what each had been doing, they had reached Garfiel's house. Winry took a quick look around and noticed her tools were not where they should be.

She began to panic, racing frantically around looking everywhere.

"They aren't here"! She said. "I can't fix you without them"! Ed looked at her.

"Why not, there are plenty of tools here."

"They aren't the same, they aren't MINE"! She snapped.

"Well, where was the last place you had yours"? Asked Al.

"Um… Dominic's," She replied. "He's taking the week off of repairs. He told me last time I was there. He said not to come, but no one will be there for repairs." She said. "We can run up and do your repairs there."

They traveled far up into the hills above Rush Valley. Deep into the mountains, farther than many people were willing to go for auto-mail repairs.

"Not too much further now guys." Winry called to the brothers.

They reached the Le Court house and Winry knocked on the door. No one answered. "That's weird, someone's always here." Winry muttered. She twisted the knob, the door opened.

"Hello" She called. "Dominic? Ridel? Anybody?" Winry called.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

A scream of pain echoed from Dominic's workshop.

"Dominic"! Winry, Ed and Al dashed towards the door and Winry threw it open.

Inside Ridel, Satera and Dominic stood around a young woman, no older than Ed and Winry.

Ed let his eyes wander across the girl.

She was beautiful with bright green eyes and wavy shoulder-length chocolate brown hair. She was Ed's height, and wore a blood red tube bra and boxers. Then he noticed something else and his jaw dropped.

Her left hand, right arm to her elbow and right leg to her knee were all auto-mail.

"Oh…my," Winry breathed what he had been thinking.

"OUT"! Dominic screamed at her.

Winry turned and strode back to the living room, too shocked to speak or argue. She sat on a wooden chair. Ed and Al came to stand by her.

"Who was that"? Ed asked.

"I have no idea. I've never seen her here before," Winry told him.

Dominic opened his workshop door a few minutes later and walked out with his family and the woman.

"Winry, why are you here"? Dominic asked in a harsh voice. "I told you I wasn't doing any repairs this week."

"I left my tools and Ed needed a little maintenance," She replied eyes downcast.

"Regardless, I told you not to come here. I was going to ask you to help me as my apprentice soon, but I cannot have an apprentice that disobeys. Please leave." Dominic told Winry.

Winry's eyes filled with tears as she turned and trudged forlornly out. Ed and Al looked at Dominic.

"That wasn't fair, Mr. Le Court." Ed said. "It's my fault that Winry needed to be here, you shouldn't punish her for trying to help." They turned and ran after Winry.

"Grandfather, the boy's right." The girl told him. "If you were going to make her your apprentice, she would have met me sooner or later. She must be good, cause you never take apprentices."

Dominic sighed. "I suppose you're right Alyssa. Ever since your mother died I've thought of you as my own grandchild and I've tried so hard to hide you when you're here. But the fact is, I'm getting old. I won't be able to do this for you when I die and I love Ridel, but he doesn't have the natural ability for what you need."

"So…"? Alyssa prodded. Dominic sighed again.

"Well, she stays with Garfiel, so that's where you'll find her."

"WHAT"!? "WHY AM I GOING"? Alyssa screamed.

"Because you were the one who mentioned how wrong I was."

Alyssa sighed. "Damn, what about the armor and the guy"?

"Winry told me what she felt she could. They are the Elric brothers, Edward the older brother, is a State alchemist. He and his brother Al, the suit of armor, are trying to find a way to get their bodies back to normal." Dominic explained. "I don't know how it happened, but Winry is their best friend so she might know more."

"THE Elric brothers"? Alyssa asked. "They're famous. Roy says they got the wounds in the War, but I don't believe him. He always twitches when he lies."

"Okay, I'll go down and talk to her shall I"? She said.

"Have fun." Dominic grinned, a rare sight indeed.

She went to the room Dominic set aside for her and found her clothes. They covered all traces of auto-mail. Her pants were black as coal with a bright blue flame running up the side to her knees. Her under-shirt was a dark red tank top, covered by a long-sleeved loose shirt of the same color and her favorite forest green cloak. Her boots were black with gold buckles and looked a little like army boots. (Think Ed's boots.)

She tied her hair back in a ponytail and fastened her mother's onyx choker around her neck and then put on her own necklace, which was the symbol of all state alchemists etched into a gold coin.

Her final touch to her signature look was her gloves. Like most alchemists gloves, hers were white, but there were gold symbols on them.

As she walked out into the living room, her adoptive grandfather called to her.

"Come here a moment Alyssa." The grin was back with a slightly evil edge.

All the way to Garfiel's Alyssa muttered to herself.

"Crazy old man. Sending me to do his job for him," And, "I wonder what they really did, probably something bad."

When she arrived, she knocked politely.

"Oh, hello Alyssa," said Garfiel as he opened the door.

"Hello, may I speak with Winry Rockbell"?

"Of course, she's in the workshop with a client, but she doesn't usually mind a quick interruption."

Garfiel showed her where the workshop was.

"Thank you." Alyssa said as he turned to go back to his chores. She reached for the doorknob, but stopped as she heard talking.

"Big brother, that girl had almost as much auto-mail as you do." She heard a boy's voice say. "I wonder how she got that way."

"I don't know Al, but Dominic was not at all happy about us seeing her."

Alyssa heard the unmistakable sound of a sob being choked back.

"Aw, come on Winry, you're still the best mechanic a guy could ask for."

"Thanks Ed, but now I'll never get better and I'll never be able to give you the best auto-mail," Winry replied.

Alyssa unconsciously sucked in a breath. So she was doing this for a specific person's sake. Amazing.

"What was that"? Said the boy named Al's voice. Alyssa heard footsteps approached and knew she'd better open the door.

She heard a thud as she did.

"Crap. Sorry about that." She apologized to the young man sitting on the floor.

"I didn't know anyone was there." She looked up and saw Winry glaring at her and a suit of armor chuckling.

"What do _you_ want," Winry sneered.


	2. The Story

Disclaimer: same as chapter 1, I don't own it, wish I did. Alyssa's mine.

Alyssa took a deep breath and began. "My grandfather would like to express his sincere and deep apology. Being an old man he sometimes overreacts. He also would like you to know that he still wants to take you on as an apprentice, if you still want to train under such a rude old man and can pass one final test of your ability." She finished.

Winry blinked for a second. "Test"? She asked. "What kind of test"? "I could kill him for this. Your test is to figure out, without touching me, what is wrong with my auto-mail." She told Winry.

"Ok, so walk around." Alyssa did as Winry asked. "Hmmm. Nothing wrong with the leg. Flex the fingers on your left hand please." Again she did as Winry told her. Alyssa could hear the problem there. "Now the right," Winry listened. "There's a bearing loose in your left hand." Alyssa nodded.

"I'm Winry Rockbell." Winry said as she fixed the gear. "This is Edward Elric," she pointed to the young man, who was now wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. "And this big suit of armor is Alphonse Elric." She introduced them.

"Hello, my name's Alyssa Solet, but everyone calls me Lee." She introduced herself. Winry looked up at Alyssa. "If you don't mind me asking, how did this happen." She gestured to Alyssa's hand.

Alyssa took a deep breath and began. "My mother was a state alchemist, she was the Earth Alchemist. She could create creatures that lived, but they were made of stone and dirt and had no flesh or soul. She would observe how they behaved, what they could do and couldn't do, their weaknesses, and so on. They stationed her here in the Valley to create weapons for the military."

"Sometimes I would follow her, even though I wasn't supposed to. I thought they were the coolest things ever created, I would watch as she transmuted them into being. I would also watch her destroy failed attempts. She had total control over all of them, they were like slaves." She paused briefly to look at them. Ed and Al were hanging on her every word.

"Then one day she made something she couldn't control. It was…I don't know how you could possibly describe it. It was bad. She tried to destroy it, but it hit her and opened such a deep wound I was sure it had torn her in half. She struggled to her feet and attacked it, I ran out screaming at it to leave my mama alone. Mom got distracted and the thing backhanded her into the cavern wall. I was foolish. I didn't know enough alchemy to stop it, besides which, in the time it would have taken me to draw a circle I would have been dead several times over."

"The thing, it turned towards me and charged. I froze in a panic. It rose on hind legs and swiped its claws at me. I put my arm up to shield myself and felt a tug. Behind the creature my mom stirred and moaned. It lunged at me. I dodged, but not quickly enough. I looked down and saw what was left of my leg. My mom had regained most of her senses by then and screamed at the thing."

"It turned and I pulled out a piece of chalk. I ran around furiously scribbling a Transmutation Circle while she battled with it. When I finished I looked up and yelled to mom. She tried to herd it to the circle and eventually she succeeded. She raised her hands to destroy it, but as she did the thing reached out and tore my hand off."

She looked up at them. "I think I died that day. I saw the Truth, but I got pulled back somehow. All I remember after that was waking up at Dominic's in horrible pain. He told me my mother had died. In bringing me to him, she'd forgotten what state she was in. Dominic fixed me up with this auto-mail and then a few weeks later _he_ came." She stopped.

"He said that I was to come with him, because I was officially a ward of the state, but Dominic wouldn't hear of it. He said it was my mom's dying wish that I stay with him." She took a breath.

"I studied alchemy. I got really good at controlling elements, for the longest time I refused to try to do anything with Earth. I was scared. When I finally tried I had a hard time, but Dominic was always there to help me."

"Then one day 5 years later, he came back. He said he wanted to check to make sure I was doing all right. At first Dominic wouldn't let him near me. But eventually I was introduced to him and he told me he wanted me to become a State Alchemist, just like my mother. I told him, I would never be like my mother, she was stuck here, doing the military's dirty work, and I refused to be like that."

"He laughed at that and said, no, I wouldn't stay put, I could wander where ever I pleased, just as long as I came back for assessments. I agreed because I figured there would be more people to help in the rest of the world. I had already helped everyone I could here. I went to Central for my state test and passed." She smiled up at them.

"I am called the Elemental Alchemist now, at least by Roy and a few other officers anyway." She finished.


End file.
